186 



BACON. 



Bacon, 

 Francis. 



of an angel. His Christian Paradoxes are so ex- 

 travagantly expressed, that Bolingbroke has adduced 

 them as proofs of his insincerity rather than of the 

 strength of his faith. But of all his devotional ex- 

 ercises, his versions of some of the Psalms are the 

 most despicable. The following notable passage 

 from the 104th Psalm, versified by the chancellor of 

 England, the contemporary of Spenser and Shake- 

 speare, cannot be matched by the sorriest rhymes of 

 Hopkins and Sternhold : 



The fishes there far vovages do make, 

 To divers shores their journey they do take; 

 There hast thou set the great leviathan, 

 That makes the seas to seeth like boiling pan. 



With regard to his style, it is generally harsh and 

 inelegant, evidently laboured with extreme care ; of- 

 ten obscure or affected, but more frequently nervous 

 and emphatic. His eloquence, according to Ben 

 .Tonson, was irresistibly impressive, and pleasing. 



We now close our observations on the character 

 and works of Bacon, a man, whose mind, indefatiga- 

 bly active, was capable of the mightiest efforts ; 

 whose powerful imagination suggested to him many 

 original views ; and whose literary ambition urged 

 him to the bold attempt of demolishing the fabric 

 reared by Aristotle, and rebuilding science on a more 

 impregnable foundation. While the story of his 

 public life affords a salutary memorial of the ravages 

 effected by inordinate ambition, the perusal of his 

 philosophical labours tends to abate the keenness of 

 our scorn, and to mingle admiration and gratitude 

 with the sympathies claimed by fallen greatness. 

 We would earnestly recommend the Novum Orga- 

 num to the attention of all speculative men, as one 

 of the best means of facilitating and guiding their in- 

 quiries. From want of acquaintance with this excel- 

 lent auxiliary, many ingenious men, in the present 

 day, proceed empirically in their investigations, as if 

 rules were altogether superfluous, or at least as if 

 they were not aware that any code of rules exists 

 preferable to the random suggestions of imagination. 



The best edition of the treatise He Atigmentis was 

 published in 1623, under the author's inspection. A 

 very accurate edition of the Novum Qrganum was 

 published in 1620. The whole works of Lord Ba- 

 con were edited by Blackbourne, in four volumes 

 folro, London, 1730; and by Mallet, London, 1740, 

 also in four volumes folio. The most complete edi- 

 tions are one in five volumes quarto, London, 1778, 

 and one in ten volumes octavo, London, 1803. There 

 is a book in three volumes quarto, entitled, The 

 Philosophical Works of Lord Bacon, by Dr Shaw ; 

 but its accuracy is not to be relied upon. Some 

 other translations and abridgments appear to be still 

 less correct. See Rawlcy and Mallet's Life of Bacon. 

 Rushworth's Historical Collections. Voltaire _V/e~- 

 hnges de Litlerature. Journals of Parliament, 1621. 

 Birch's Memoirs of Elizabeth, (m. (.) 



BACON, John, an eminent English sculptor, was 

 born in the year 1740. His father, who was a cloth- 

 worker in Southwark, was descended from an ancient 

 family- in Shropshire. Though, in the age of child- 

 hood, Bacon discovered a propensity for drawing, 

 hh first opportunity of exercising it was on be- 



1 



coming an apprentice at a porcelain manufactory, at 

 the age of fifteen. There he was employed in paint- 

 ing china, and in forming small ornamental pieces in 

 clay, which betrayed early indications of that genius 

 which afterwards led him to such celebrity. The 

 sight of the models of different sculptors, sent to a 

 pottery near the manufactory to be burnt, excited a 

 great desire in Bacon to make something similar to 

 them ; and, in the year 1758, he formed a small figure 

 of Peace, after the antique. In 1763 he first tried 

 the sculpture of marble, without previously having 

 seen it attempted ; and then he invented a useful in- 

 strument, since adopted by many others, for the pur- 

 pose of obtaining correct measurements and propor- 

 tions. The progress of this artist was so rapid, that, 

 between the year 1763 and 1766, he obtained no less 

 than nine different premiums from the Society for 

 Encouragement of the Arts. The Royal Academy 

 being instituted in 1768, Bacon attended it, and re- 

 ceived what may be called his first instructions in 

 sculpture, having never before seen either it or mo- 

 delling regularly executed. In the following year, 

 the gold medal, the first ever given for sculpture by 

 the Academy, was decreed to him. He was soon 

 afterwards elected a member of the Academy ; and 

 his reputation was further established by a statue of 

 Mars, which introduced him to the notice of the 

 Archbishop of York. Bacon was now employed to 

 model a bust of the king ; on which occasion, having 

 answered his majesty's question, whether he had ever 

 been out of the kingdom, in the negative, " I am glad 

 of it," said the king, " You will be the greater ho- 

 nour to it." The king was so well satisfied with 

 this performance, that he ordered Bacon to prepare 

 another bust of him, intended as a present to the uni- 

 versity of Gottingen, and the queen ordered a third. 



By this time the reputation of Bacon as a sculp- 

 tor and modeller was firmly established. In 1773, 

 after executing two statues, of Mars and Venus, in 

 plaster, he presented them to the Society for the En- 

 couragement of Arts : they were received with much 

 approbation, and the society voted him their gold 

 medal, inscribed Eminent Merit. He was now 

 employed in many sculptures : He executed two 

 groups for the top of Somerset House, in London, in 

 1780, and the monument of Lord Halifax in West- 

 minster Abbey. Next year he began the famous 

 statue of Judge Blackstone, for All Souls College, 

 Oxford, and soon afterwards that of Henry VI., for 

 the Anti Chapel at Eton. He then finished what 

 has been considered his chef iTceuvre, the monument 

 of the Earl of Chatham in Westminster Abbey, 

 which was commenced in 1778. His skill in the 

 antique had been frequently called in question, but 

 he modelled a head of Jupiter Tonans, which was in- 

 spected by several eminent connoisseurs, and mista- 

 ken for an antique ; some even inquired, " from what 

 temple abroad he had obtained it ?" Numerous pieces 

 of sculpture were produced from the chisel ol Bacon. 

 Lord Rodney's monument at Jamaica, Lord Heath- 

 field's at Buckland, near Plymouth, Mr Howard's 

 and Dr Johnson's in St Paul's Cathedral. This art- 

 ist was attacked by a disease, which quickly termi- 

 nated his existence, in 1799. 



Bacon was certainly one of the molt distinguished 



Bacony 



John. 





